luang prabang

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im very sad about losing my entire luang prabang entry the other day. oh the perils of using the internet to write your diary. trouble is, now cant remember what i did there!

we arrived off the boat from pak beng (bleugh) at the pak ou caves which is a popular stop off point for tourists on thier way to laos from thailand and a welcome chance to stretch your legs after a few hours on the mekong. the caves were used by the people of laos to hide their precious buddhas when the chinese decided to invade and burn and batter everything they could lay their hands on (not sure why they did this seeing as they are also buddhists but thats what happened so we wont worry about the details of why they were treading on each otherstoes). anyhow, back to the point, the locals started bringing thier buddhas to the caves to keep them safe and ow there are thousands of them. the problem with a cave full of buddhas s that you arent meant to turn your back on a buddha, nor are you meant to point your feet at one, nor are you meant to be higher than a buddha at any time which means, in theory at least, that to enter the cave you would ave had to crawl in sideways but i think the rule was lifted because i didnt see much in the way of retarded crab impressions. im not a cave fan (mentioned further on in halong bay) so spending time in the pitch black in a small space where our guide had spotted a boa constrictor and there were a whole lot of bats wasnt my cup of tea. the caves were lovely and worth stopping at but hey, youve seen one buddha, youve seen them all.

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we arrived in luang prabang and hiked up the '5 or 6 steps' mentioned by marlo our tour guidewhich turned out to be40 steps with our backpacks and jumped inot more dodgy tuk tuks which tool us to the guesthouse. the guesthouse turned out to be the antithesis of pak beng and was abosolutely gorgeous. we stayed in beautiful cabanas with little terraces and a garden with a pool and bbq area overlooking the mekong. Luang prabang is a very sleepy place and it was perfect for doing nothing for a few days.

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that eveing we went out for dinner at a local restaurant, wandered around the night market and then follwed all the other tourists to the bar area on the river for some very dodgy cocktails. i read a sign in the town that said 'things to do in luang prabang: visit a laos disco'. well that would be fantastic (not sure about the word 'disco') if there wasnt an 11.30pm curfew on the country. so a couple of drinks with all the other foreigners and then off to bed. livin it up in laos.

the next day priti my room mate and i decided to walk into town...all by urselves...without a map. yup, we got lost on a journey that was meant to take 30 minutes. after an hour or been given directions from locals who a. didnt speak english and b. had no idea what we were talking about, we admitted defeat and took a tuk tuk into town. we had lunch by the river, did some boring stuff like using the internet and that kind of thing then went to the night market for a wander. we bought a laso picnic for 30p (noodles, vegetables etc) off a street vendor and took it back to our veranda where we had a tea party with a few other people from the group.

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the next day we took a bus about 40 minutes drive out of the town to kwang sea falls where there is a huge waterfall. the area is great for hiking, walking and swimming and they even have a novelty group of bears that you can feed bananas. they are kind of cute when you first see them but they stand on their back legs and beg in a way that became kind of disturbing after a while. there is also a rescued asian tiger called thet that you can feed (not a chance) and in true asian style you can walk right up to the cage and poke your hands through the bars and stroke the tiger if you want to. the token 'this tiger bites' didnt really seem to cut it but ive figured that health and safety doesnt feature hghly around here (more so because to get to this internet cafe i had to climb over a mountain of rubble in the road) so maybe stu and alex should home in on laos as a niche market? just a thought. anyway, the waterfall was everything a waterfall should be and we took some pictures and wandered about for a bit trying to decide just hoe cold we thought the water would be and whether we would drown if we jumped in.

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as it happened the water was warm and there wasnt anyone else swimming so we had the whole thing to ourselves. ive never swum in a waterfall so for me it was very exciting (such a child, i know) andi evenfound the courage to jump of a mini cliff into the deep bit (10 minutes of standing saying i dont think i can do it and being called a wimp later). part of my bravery came from the fact that there were only a few people willing to swim and it was only the girls who would jump in so i had a point to prove.

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we had lunch next to the waterfallsand then it tipped it down with rain for a good 20 minutes which meant slipping aorund covered in mud back to our tuk tuk which was meant to take us back to town. 'meant to take us' becuase it broke down in the back of beyond. we all got out while the guide and the driver puzzled over the flat tyre, then we got back in, then drove a bit, then got out because the spare was flat, then the driver decided it was too heavy so we couldnt sit above the tyre, then he decided we needed to hitch a ride with another tuk tuk for a bit, than he fixed the tyre and we finally made it back...an hour late. all the time this was going on a group of school kids were following us on their bikes and wating everytime we broke down to race us. they were very cute and i guess they dont have much to do out in the sticks so laughing at us probably made thier day.

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i got back in time to mission all the way up mount phusi with luke the aussie to take some photos of the sunset over luang prabang. there are a whole lot of steps up to the temple but its worth it when you get to the top. at 6pm the monks ring the bells and the sun sets, pretty perfect really.

we had a group bbq at the guesthouse that evening then luke, tony (another australian guy) and i went hardcpre extreme shopping at the night market which is allegedly the best in laos. advice to anyone travelling there, if you know what you want get there late and bargain hard as they crack everntually(dont you hatemoney grabbing poor people, hehe).i wont bore everyone with details of my silk bedspread that only cost a fiver but i love it almost as much as i love cheese sandwiches and i will be showing it to everyone including the postman when i get home (that sounds quite dodgy).

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next morning we visited the royal palace which belonged to the royal family (self explanatory) until the communist party came in and took the palace and sent them off to lie in the middle of nowhere where ellegedly they died when they dismissed their servants and couldnt work out how to feed themselves. a likely story some might say but im not one to speculate on laos history and the palace was lovely. in the afternoon we had our flight to vientiene which had the worst turbulence ive ever experienced but at least made priti laugh everytime i gripped my seat too obviously.And that was luang prabang in a nutshell...